The articles are used in the following cases.
1. The article with geographical nouns.
The article is used before the nouns of:
A). Some Cities.
The articles are NOT used with city names, however, there are some exceptions:
- La Spezia/L’Aquila/La Valletta/II Cairo.
- L’Aia/L’Avana/Il pireo/La Mecca.
B). Places name (Cit, street, squares) + attribute/complement.
- La Firenze del Rinascimento (Renaissance Florence).
- La nebbiosa Milano (Foggy Milan).
- Una Torino d’altri tempi (A Turin from times gone by).
- La Roma fascista (Fascist Rome).
- La Berlino degli Anni Trenta (Berlin in the Thirties).
- La Via nazionale degli anni 50 (The national route of the 1950s).
- La piazza San Marco rinascimentale (The Renaissance Piazza San Marco).
- La Cuba di Fidel Castro (Fidel Castro’s Cuba).
C). With mountain, river, and lake names.
- Il Cervino/ Il Monte Bianco/ Il Brennero.
- Il Tevere/ l’Arno/ Il Po.
- Il lago Maggiore/ Il Trasimeno/ Il Lago di Garda.
D). Continents, states, regions, and large islands.
- L’Europa
- L’Italia
- La Lombardia
- L’Elba
- La Sicilia/ La Sarfegna/ La Corsica.
- Le Egadi/ Le Eolie/ Le Barbados/ Le Hawaii etc.
2. The article in front of family names (preceded by the possessive).
The article is used before the family names preceded by the possessive in the following cases.
A). In the plural.
- I nostri genitori (Our parents).
- I nostri nonni (I nostri nonni).
- I suoi cugini (His cousins).
B). Nouns qualified by an adjective or determined by a complement.
- La mia cara zia (My dear aunt).
- Il mio cugino di Roma (My cousin from Rome).
C). With affective, compound, and altered nouns.
- Il suo prozio (His great uncle).
- La sua bisnonna (His great-grandmother).
- Il suo fratellino (His little brother).
- La nostra cuginetta (Our little cousin).
D). Before the possessives Proprio and Loro.
- Il loro nonno (Il loro nonno).
- La propria madre (Your own mother).
- Il loro zio (Their uncle).
E). With (Papà, babbo, mamma, figliolo,figliola).
- Il mio Papà/babbo (My Dad).
- La nostra mamma (Our mom).
- La sua figliola (His daughter).
- Il suo figliolo (His son).
3. The article in front of proper names.
Normally the article is NOT used with the names (and surnames) of people however there are some exceptions.
A). With titiles.
- Il Signor Billi (Mr. Billi).
- La Signora Giulia (Mrs. Giulia).
- Il Dottor Rossi (Doctor Rossi).
- Il Professor Righi (Professor Righi).
- L’Avvocato Neri (Lawyer Neri).
- L’Ingegner Pieri (Engineer Pieri).
- L’Architetto Celli (The architect Celli).
- Il Conte Luchini (Count Luchini).
But:
- Buongiorno, Signora Tina.
- (Good morning, Mrs Tina).
- Buonasera, signor Bianchi.
- (Good evening, Mr. Bianchi).
B). With surnames like.
1). Women’s surnames.
- La Melandri/ La Pivetti/ La Ferilli.
- Non ho parlato con la Massetti.
- (I haven’t spoken to Massetti).
- La Giretti, nel suo articolo scrive che..
- (Giretti, in her article writes that…).
2). Names and surnames in the dialects of northern Italy.
- Il Riccardo.
- (The Richard).
- La Giorgia.
- (The Georgia).
- Il Cerutti.
- (The Cerutti).
In the plural, the article with the surname indicates the family.
- Gli Erocolani.
- (The Erocolani family).
- Gli Agnelli.
- (The Agnelli family).
- I Montecchi e i Capuleti.
- (The Montecchi and Capuleti).
3. Surnames of famous (Italian) people.
- L’Alighieri.
- Il Boccaccio.
C). With nicknames.
- Lorenzo il Magnifico.
- (Lorenzo the Magnificent).
- Jack lo Squartatore.
- (Jack the Ripper).
- Il Braghettone.
- (The Braghettone).
- Il Sodoma.
- (The Sodom).
D). The indefinite article in front of an artist’s name indicates one of his works.
- A casa sua c’è un Bassano.
- (At his house there is a Bassano).
- In questa galleria c’è un Raffaello.
- (In this gallery there is a Raphael).